


Not Today, Satan

by Lenia



Category: Devilman (Anime & Manga), Devilman Crybaby - Fandom
Genre: Abrahamic Mythology, Akira has major ptsd and needs a hug and therapy, Angel's, BAMF Miki, Canon Bisexual Characters, Canon Gay Characters, Christianity mythology, F/F, F/M, Fix-it fic, God is MIA, God need's a break, Hermaphrodites, Intersex Character, Islamic Mythology, M/M, Mesopotamian Mythology - Freeform, Miko is a snake, Multi, Ryo is a drama queen, Ryo won't be easily forgivin, agnst, hebrew mythology, morality grey characters, slow built, smart Akira
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-03-15 17:48:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13618503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lenia/pseuds/Lenia
Summary: Akira's dead, Satan suffers, and the Earth is destroyed. Rinse and repeat until Satan receives divine intervention to save himself and Akira from their personal hell through dreams and memories. Now that Ryo remembers everything from the previous time loop he is prepared to fix his mistakes and be with Akira! Thatmightget in the way now that Akira remembers absolutely everything and make things between them a "tiny" bit more complicated.





	1. Lucifer

**Author's Note:**

> IT'S DONE!!! The first chapter of my story "Not Today, Satan" has been posted! Oh my god it's been two years since I written anything and posted on this website and its good to be back! I thank HEAVILY for my amazing beta Martherat!!! 
> 
> https://martherat.tumblr.com/ and this is mine http://ariessy.tumblr.com/ 
> 
> as for https://ultrainstinctkaka.tumblr.com/ with all your ideas and input and https://amanoflamancha.tumblr.com/ with the angel lore! THANK YOU GUYSSS <3 <3 <3
> 
> I have big plans for this fanfiction and thank you, everyone, for your love and support and Martherat, without you my fanfic wouldn't come alive as it did with your help :)

"I take it back!" Satan screamed into the broken atmosphere. His cries overshadowed by the chorus of celestial bodies crashing down to earth like meteorites. "Please...God...I repent!" The angel sobbed harder, cradling Akira's cold dead body in his arms. He knew God could hear him. That old fuck, he was getting a show out of all of this.

The Earth shook, trembled and cracked, around him. As if the Earth was giving its final last breath until it would die. His wails and sobs were getting lost in the middle of the destruction and muting his anguish. This is not what he had wanted, not this way. He was to be powerful, to be outside God’s domain. He had done everything he could think of and yet… Why couldn’t Akira _see_ it? Why couldn’t he _understand?_

His tears were blurring his vision and the pain in his heart surpassing the limits of his body as he roared into the starry abyss. However, no one was there to hear it. It was just him and everything was crumbling apart in front of his eyes.

_Do demons have hearts? Do they feel love?_

Akira’s voice reverberated in his head like a song because now he knew for sure what Akira finally meant.

_"Please...Akira...”_ The angel sobbed hopelessly. Pleading to the corpse that had stiffened in his arms with the rigor mortis already making his fingers twitch and bend in odd angels. His eyes that were once passionate earthy brown now stared dully into oblivion. Were now empty like two marbles. Those lifeless dead eyes were burying him making the roots of his misery dig even deeper, far deeper. 

He put a hand on his cheek in a foolish attempt to feel some type of warmth. “Akira,” he whispered again “was it my fault? Did I really cause all this to you?” He couldn’t see himself but he already knew how much he was crying and he wasn’t even surprised that it was happening, he felt no shame.

He had lost that long ago.

And even if he still had shame, there was no space for it now. his heart was flooding with despair and a sorrow so heavy he was sure angels could feel now, that angels had a heart of their own. 

Or at least he did.

_You are crying too, Ryo_ A childish and wavering voice appeared. He had denied it so heartily that one time but now if admitting it was going to bring Akira back he would do it. After all, he was starting to believe that himself, he wouldn’t be lying and Akira would gladly appreciate some honesty. Right? 

_“Is that what you want?"_ He snapped in a new outburst of emotions fueling him to do something but he still didn’t know exactly what. “Is it?! Then YES I am, I’m crying Akira. LOOK AT ME! I’m even worse than you so please… just…” his voice barely above a whisper by the end. Sobbing, hopelessly bawling tears streaming down his porcelain face like rain while holding a dead body that meant much more than any possible living thing. His beloved Akira, the one he was cradling, rigid and pale but still precious. 

A flap of wings followed by a bright wave of light and heat appeared behind him and he tightened his hold on Akira's torso. Satan curled his wings around the both of them like a mother bird would do protecting their young from a predator. Satan curled himself protectively on the lonely cliff he was lying on trembled around him. The feeling of a frightening familiar presence filled him with trepidation and a sensation of nausea that made his core twist and burn. 

_“I don’t know what hurts me more. Seeing you go through this again or seeing humanity go through it again.,”_ Said a sad voice that was nauseating familiar. And then in an instant shorter than a second, the chaos stopped. Time frozen with the rocks no longer flying across Earth, the volcanoes ceased their final eruption and the heavenly bodies hovered midair like glowing disks above the cracked stratosphere before they descended. Satan looked warily around him while holding Akira tightly. The voice he thought he had long forgotten still had the same characteristic tone, that worried sound made people think she cared. He was wrong, he hadn’t forgotten it. 

“I have come here so many times already and yet you are always the same by the time I arrive. Weeping over Amon’s body and making promises you never fulfill. It quite suits you.”

It's unmistakable. He didn't have to lift his head to know who was behind him. Actually, he didn’t want to lift it either. The darkness behind his long and heavy wings was giving him a false sense of safeness. A sense that it was only him, Akira and him, just the two of them. The darkness behind his wings hid him from reality and from the weight of his actions. 

But the only thing he couldn’t pretend there was Akira’s death. Akira was dead. He had left him, twice. And if he didn’t love him enough he could swear he was feeling anger all over again. But it wasn’t resentment, or at least that’s what he thought, it was sorrow and disappointment because Akira had chosen those humans instead of him. It was that, but he was seeing how those feelings had been wearing a mask before, camouflaging themselves as anger and hunger for power.

And, even if he wanted to avoid the encounter waiting for him behind his small haven, he couldn’t. _She_ wouldn’t let him.

"What do you want... _Gabriel?"_

The small Dominion tensed and swallowed thickly at the way her name was said. Full of acid and venom and pure loathing. As if he took her name and spat it back out in disgust. She would not falter, it had been too long _since..._

"You care about what someone else but your wants? If that was the truth then this wouldn't have happened all over again."

Satan glared beneath the feathers of his wings to look at her. She hasn't changed one bit since he'd fallen. Still clad in the same heavy silver plated armor and the blue tunic she wore underneath. Only thing was different were the sigils across her breastplate. The sigils shined brightly around her like beacon contrast to the blood-red sky. Gabriel's six copper brown wings and bright halo overshadowed her body with an aura of light making her dark skin shimmer like a polished smoky quartz. 

Her lips curled into a crestfallen frown and her amber eyes were downcast. Gabriel did not look at him in the eye, she didn’t want to. She made her eyes travel far away from her brother as if she was being modest, averting her gaze because of his nudity or because he is just too pitiful to be seen. She let out a deep sigh of utter defeat and took in the burning world around her. "It will never stop, you will never stop. You'll keep destroying yourself until you get what you want and it won't be enough! Like that poor creature you have in your arms." She pointed to the mutilated human corpse, ignoring the icy glare from her brother.

"And honestly I don't know how much more of this I can take." She finished, just above a whisper. She traced her coily, brown hair with her left hand and decided to look at the destruction around her again since that was still a better option than looking at the shadow of who she once had called her most precious brother. "Lucifer, do you really want to take it back?" she asks him while hoping for some sincerity this time around.

_**"Satan."**_

__"What?"_ _

__

“Call me Satan.” The winged figure on the ground hissed, cold and threatening, again peeking from behind his large wings. His eyes narrowed, rigid, cold, hard. His glare only intensified when she began speaking.

"Satan...?” She stared at him dumbly than her face morphed aghast and pained. _"Satan?"_ Is that what you call yourself now? Is this what you have truly become?! Have you truly turned your back on us?" 

"I wasn't the first _one_ to turn my back!" He corrected her with sharp and accusing bitterness lacing his voice. Even in the midst of his despair and anger, he feels something inside of him twisting and burning he still resents her and cannot stop himself from showing it. Actually, he wants to show it. He wants her to hurt as much as he had. To feel the same agony he's choking in. "I wasn't the one to cast someone and I was not the one to betray my brother". 

Gabriel shudders a gasp feeling it die in her throat. His words cut her deep and raw like a butcher. She has been through this before even though she has done this so many times, it still feels like the first time all over again.

She cannot get used to her brother's suffering grimace with his reddening eyes and tear-stained face. She cannot get over the fact that part of it, in her mind, it's her fault. 

"You're right," She whispers, defeated and tired. So very tired. "On that day you wished for me to join you..." She closed her eyes at the memory of the day in when she had averted her hand from his own outstretched one. "Even if I had joined you, you would have never listened to reason. You were too far gone, your quest to defeat God was too strong for me to try to do something. And for what? To carve up a scrap of land to call it your own? To be God of ashes? If I had joined you, I would've ended up like that boy!"

>

" _COWARD!_ YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ONE! AND AN ENVIOUS ONE AT THAT. DO YOU THINK I NEVER REALIZED YOU WERE HOPING FOR MY DEMISE?" Satan growled back at the girl, burning holes at her sigils. Gabriel couldn't stop herself from wondering if he had always been like this or if it was his hunger for power that had made him this way. "WHO WAS THE ONE THAT GOT MOST BENEFIT FROM MY FALL? YOU THINK I DIDN'T KNOW?" The demon continued spitting while ignoring how he was breaking the girl's heart all over again. "I GOT NO ONE NOW! I HAD SOMEONE THAT MADE ME FORGET THE PAIN OF OBLIVION, THE PAIN OF BEING THROWN ASIDE AND DISPOSED OF AS IF I WERE NOTHING! DO YOU THINK I CARE WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO SAY?!" 

_**"DON'T PLAY THE VICTIM, YOU BROUGHT THIS ON YOURSELF!"** _ She roared, sympathy and meekness gone from her tone. Her voice booming like her horn. tearing the skies apart. Her heart ached and regret filled her watching her brother cringed. Taking a breath to compose herself she glanced at the human hidden by Satan's wings. "I doubt you cared about what _he_ had to say." She said spitefully. 

"I cared! Of course, I did! But he did the same as you, he turned his back to me!" Satan cried pain naked on his face. Something she had seen already in all the times before one but it still didn’t make it less grievous.  


Satan hugged the cold limp body in his arms closer to him and covered it again with his wings. He didn't want Gabriel to see him. He didn't want her to know about Akira because it felt as if he was sharing him and the thought despised him, Akira was only his. He caressed his face with his long fingers staring into Akira's eye's lifeless doll eyes. "I would have given him the world and everything he wanted..." he whispered tearfully, plaintively.

"Then, what would you do if I gave you another opportunity. Another chance so that you can show him that instead of—" And she stays quiet for a second because she doesn't know how to put in a phrase everything that happened and everything her brother had done to that poor soul. "Instead of what you did show him." Gabriel finishes, making the offer completely official and leaving the decision to her brother. Gabriel kneels down in front of him and notices how after taking a look at her armor, Satan crawls back away from her. She thinks it's because she looks imposing or it's because he's more vulnerable than ever with his wings wrapping both him and the dead human in his arms.

“In exchange for what?” A small voice comes from under the pristine white feathers. Even if it sounds so out character and nothing like the Lucifer she remembers, she knows it’s him. After all, there’s no one else but them in the middle of all the desolation.  
“In exchange for leaving this planet at peace.” She said diplomatically. She looks up at the infinite stars above them and the horde of angels remained frozen, hovering above them frozen in time because of her grace. “There is no more I can do brother, God is too strong and he’ll never stop and there is no more than I can do but grant you the gift of dreams.”

“You are going to help me? That’s a good joke, should I feel grateful?” It was in comments like this that Gabriel saw how much her brother had changed but also how much he had stayed the same. He had always been temperamental and in possession of the biggest drive, she had ever witnessed, more than hers, more than Michael’s. But she had decided to give him a chance, to believe in him for once.

“Do I have to believe this change of heart came because you are generous and merciful and oh so understanding?” Satan added trying to balance any ulterior motives because it was hard for him to believe that someone had no ulterior motives at all.  
She sighed, she can’t tell him the truth it will be too much and they don’t have time. 

“You’ll figure it out, you’ve always been smart.” And with that Gabriel removed her gauntlet revealing her dark hand to touch Lucifer's white forehead. She brushed his blonde bangs aside tenderly. A pulsating bright light blinded Satan he couldn’t see what was happening around him but he could feel the Earth moving and accommodating again. The skies, once plagued with darkness, were now becoming clear under the blinding blue light coming from Gabriel’s hand. “If you have any doubts remember you can always find me in your dreams, brother”.


	2. Bits and Pieces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HEYY!! Sorry its been awhile <3 school's been tough and everything happening especially with the Parkland shooting which hits home in so many levels because I'm a Floridain My school I'm part of the SGA Volunteering where we are going to organize the march on the 24 for March For Our Live which I am absolutely excited to be apart of^^
> 
> So I wanted to throw this quick chapter today because tomarrow im gonna be swamped with the 8 hour SGA meeting tomarrow ughhh
> 
> Thank you so much to  
> this is mine [follow me on tumblr if you want!](http://ariessy.tumblr.com/) Ariessy  
> https://martherat.tumblr.com/ My RP partner  
> https://cuteshywriter.tumblr.com/ My editor

Consciousness creeps over him slowly, sunlight hitting Ryo across his face burning his eyelids. Huffing in annoyance, he rolls over and instantly regrets that motion when a jolt of sharp pain sprung up from his back. He opens his eyes against the blinding sunlight filtering through the glass windows, hitting his face harshly and making him feel like an ant beneath a magnifying glass. "Did I oversleep?" he wonders allowed, taking note of the sun setting high in the middle of the sky and so realizing it’s noon already. He sits up rubbing his eyes lazily, trying to piece things together in his sleep-muddled mind that can't shake off the feeling of something is _off_.

He found himself sleeping on his sofa, and he still had his clothes on from the night before. 

He attempts to get up trying to make sense of it all, his feet dragging, and he feels his back is very sore. The muscles on his back feel tender all over when he moved. He winces, stretching his body and feels a shock of pain travel up his rhomboid and down his lower spine, every movement making the pain flare worse. It feels as if parts of his skin's been ripped from his body or as if he'd been flayed.

 _What exactly did I do last night?_ Ryo wonders in puzzlement. The utter sense of wrongness and familiarity sets over him like a wave. He'd never blacked out before or had woken up with his back hurting him. Well not without reason. He's sure he hasn’t thrown his back out in any of his workouts.

So why?

Rubbing his temple in frustration trying desperately to clear his fogged mind, he decides he needs 100% Colombian coffee to clear his head.  


A flash of white appears right before his eyes and he feels his brain bleeding from the inside out. The jolts of rippling sensation shoot up his head and it was so deep and acute, he wanted to rip his own head off. He falls to his knees and his head finds the ground. Hard. But he doesn’t complain because that's a slight compared to the feeling of nails scratching the insides of his mind.

He loses his senses. His mouth disconnects itself from his body and goes wild. He screams, the cry almost ripping his vocal cords to shreds. Ryo convulses into the floor and gripping his hair, yelling for it to _stops._ It doesn't and his mind is assaulted by onslaughts of ghastly images clawing its way into his consciousness, burrowing itself deeper and he sees visions. Horrible, distorted and nightmarish images flash before him like a montage appearing one after the other. He sees red, blood, demons, and war. It goes so fast he doesn’t have enough time to see neither of those images. He hears voices and they get louder and louder and he feels his brain being ripped apart as if someone was personally using his hands to put things back into place. He sees a dark hand and two ember eyes like twin suns. Those hands are taking something and putting it somewhere else. He feels that same hand clutching something within the depths of his memory, a place that not even himself knew of, and said hand puts whatever came out against the light.

His stomach roils 's and he vomits into the floor, staining the white carpet.  


In his agony, he is able to understand. The voice rips into him with its words, slicing him raw and bloody but he can understand.

 _Find me in your dreams_ a girl’s soft, sweet and helpful voice rips into his ear canals and tears his eardrums apart. It is with that he knows who the voice belongs to and whose hands he’s being tortured with.

_Brother_

_Gabriel,_ he seethes when a wave impacts inside his head, a wave showing him more of what that hand had taken out of that very dark pit inside his own mind. 

* * *

It hurt to open his eyes. He didn't want too.

The pained feeling lingered on like something putting his brain on purée. His eyelids felt as if glued together and the slightest movement would reel him in more agony. He tries many times and, in every one of them, he feels his eyes rolling back. Yet his lids don’t separate. His head hurts too much to move, just like the rest of his body. Slowly, his senses started to report back to his brain and, once he felt assured, he tests the waters.  


Ryo's mouth tasted like stale vomit and Listerine when he moved his tongue around. His eyelids were looser, so he tries again. Slowly, Ryo opened his eyes slightly and he's grateful that everything was dark around him. Still, even with no light to stab his eyes, his eyes still ached. He gave himself ten seconds, then twenty and, finally, thirty to open his eyes fully, yet everything around him was blurry.

Ryo's throat burns and even breathing was painful. He can feel his eyes watering as his throat contracts again, trying to make him barf even with an empty stomach.  
A cool cup of water placed on his parched lips and the liquid goes down slowly. "Drink" he hears a deep throaty voice of woman commands, but nonetheless drinks. The water soothes his throat and his insides but he coughs up painfully. Ryo's eyes met the wide, yellow-green eyes staring at him on a plastic, frozen face  


"Thanks, Jenny," he says, or tries to because in the middle of it he starts coughing again. He instinctively takes the glass of water back to his lips and gulps, holding his breath and trying to control the spasms going through his body. It's going to take a while until he can speak again normally, he figures.

"You were found passed out next to the couch," she says behind her teeth yet still audible to his ears. She bends forward, not bothering to cover her breast peeking out of her dress shirt when bringing the blankets more around Ryo. "You've been out for eleven hours."  


"Eleven hours?" Ryo croaks out alarmed and winced.

 _Eleven hours,_ he thinks. He feels shivers go up to his arm and quickly, but clumsily, searches for his phone to find it under his pillow. However, before he is able to use it, a piercing pang crosses his head again. His axis feels shifted and he uses his left hand to keep himself steady and in a sitting position. "Try to stay still," the woman says, her tone as monotone as always.  


He ignores her, swipes the screen with his thumb and his heart lurches. 

**June 6, 2018**

Ryo freezes. 

**June 6, 2018**

**June 6 , 2018**

**June 6, 2018**

The date plays over and over again in his head and he drops the phone. He wails, clutching his head and curls over in the covers. His stomach twists again, threatening him. He has to go now because someone is waiting for him, someone _ached_ to see. _Akira,_ he thinks while getting up with wobbly legs. He stares at them with hatred, as if that was enough to make them obey. 

“You should rest,” the voice of his secretary says but she doesn’t try to stop him. Ryo gives her a glare that would make anyone else mind their own business immediately and continues. He doesn’t really need that with Jenny as she will always do what he orders her to do. However, he is not feeling well at all and definitely not in the mood to reason with her. “I can’t” and with that, he leaves. 

Stumbling, he gets to the bathroom and splashes cold water on his face in an attempt to clear the dizziness away. His breathing ragged and forced and he still has to remind himself to mind his throat. His head hangs and throbs on his tired shoulders.  


Carefully, he glances up in the mirror and just stares. There’s little to no light filtering through the curtains but it’s still enough to allow his to see what’s in front of him.  


His blood boils in disgust making his stomach turn because he despises what waits in the form of his reflection.  
The reflection was not of his. It couldn’t.

It was too _small._

Too _weak._

Looking at his waxy complexion in the mirror, he trails down his hand to the side of his jaw. Ryo's face was the same, except for it was rounder and boyish. He absentmindedly directed his hand down to his chest, flat and solid with no softness of his breast to greet them.  


His skin looks dull and close to dead. It lacks the shimmer it used to have, a shimmer that used to make him look even greater. He frowns when that thought goes through his mind because he is not great now and he can’t stop himself from thinking that as his eyes go to his shoulders, waiting to see something that is not there.  
Not now at least.

His right hand goes up because he thinks, for a second, that perhaps his eyes are lying to him. Ryo touches his shoulder and he has no more option than to accept it. The heavy and strong, yet soft and pliable pair of wings is missing and nowhere in sight. His second hand joins the other one in the search for his lost wings and it travels to its opposite shoulder.

 _They are not there_ And the thought sounds like a death sentence. He feels even more pathetic looking into the mirror and catches his posture. He looks as if he was hugging himself, trying to make himself feel better after realizing he is back to nothing.  
He's human. And repulsion makes itself present again.  


He would blame his eyes because they too are different, so perhaps they can’t see clearly. But he’s not that pitiful. Because even though his eyes seem muted and dark, he knows his sight is fine.

He knows that what he is seeing is the reality. 

And he fucking hates it and himself. 

Ryo tries to stand straighter, tries to make his posture compensate for everything he lacks. He bights back a yelp when the pain flares on his shoulder blades and the muscles prepare themselves for something greater. Yet he’s not going to do anything great, he’s just going to stand up straight. His muscles confirm him that extent of them is missing and he feels like crying in rage.  


Even though his whole back is preparing his stance, he cannot fly. 

Even though he stands straight and his legs feel stronger, assuring him support, it doesn’t matter because he doesn’t even have half the size he was used to be.  
And even though he still has many other assets, he feels incomplete and lacking.  


However, he knows is just transitory. He’s sure of that and so he decides to put his new frail image to good use. He looks at himself and decides to memorize this version of himself. He looks at everything but most importantly at what’s not there but should be. He observes the empty spaces with intensity and attention and he promises, no, he swears he’s going to change it.

And may this feeble, fake rendering of what he used to become a good reminder of what he lost and what he has yet to achieve.  
He walks down the stairs and feels his chest aching. Ryo’s hand goes to his shirt and he clutches it, trying to make the pain in his body leave. But he can’t and he needs to stop in the middle of the staircase as the pain just grows stronger and stronger. He feels as if someone is pulling something inside him, something that makes he craved for someone. He clearly knows who that person is because soft, brown eyes come to his mind immediately. Ryo needs to see him. He needs to make sure Akira is fine.  
He gets to the end of the stairs and that’s when he wonders why. _Why wouldn’t Akira be fine?_ He reasons.  
But he doesn’t have much time to think because his mind is invaded again as a fast flow of visions appear and then, suddenly, it stops in enough time for him to see it. It is just one but is the worst of them all and Ryo knows and his eyes water.

Akira. Cold. Dead. Only half a torso and laying in his arms with his life extinguished. Gone, while Ryo is still there with only eternal loneliness to accompany him.  
_No Akira is alive!_  
He feels it in his bones and he aches to see him. Ryo makes a quick dash to his closet and grabs his guns and as much as he can stuff in his coat. 

He runs, not sparring to give Jenny a second glance, ignoring those ghoulish yellow eyes drilling holes on his back. Ryo grabs his keys and makes a mad dash to the door.

Remembering his dreams _memories_ of blood, death, and Akira! Even just thinking about them sent violent tremors throughout his body his stomach turns. However, that didn't stop him from running down the flight of stairs to his garage to finds his car. His hands are shaking as he presses the bottom of his car alarm to open. Doors are open and he gets in, jamming his keys in the ignition, turning them on, bringing his car to life.

Sitting back in his chair he fixes the rear-view mirror and sees his half-crazed and desperate eyes stare back at him. Wide, desperate and full of fear. He cannot bear to look at them anymore and he half minded considers ripping his own eyes in disgust.

He doesn't. Because Akira consumes his mind once more and he finds his resolve again. Akira is the only thing that matters. 

The garage door opens automatically at his command and he's greeted by the complete darkness of the outside. Ryo slams his foot on the accelerator and floors it. The tires gave an ungodly screech of the fractions and Ryo dashes out into the night. 

Driving at breakneck speed, the world around him turned into a color blur. Shapes did not exist; there were only bright streaks of light when he drove right past them. They looked like something out of an abstract painting. He was sure he drove past seven or eight traffic lights at the speed he was going, but he couldn't give two shits to care. The throbbing of his head didn't lessen, with blood rushing in his ears and heart hammering in his chest. Ryo's knuckles were white, his fingers locking the steering wheel with sweaty hands and gazed down at the dashboard. 

**3:07 a.m**

"Only three o' seven in the morning", Ryo whispers to himself and trembled.  
Three o' seven in the morning.  
Morning!

That means Akira... And the Sabbath... It was before!

Before the ritual, before the demons! And Akira is...it was from the very beginning  
The very start, so that means Akira's body is still pure, untouched by Amon.

Sweet baby-faced Akira flashed before his mind's eyes. His innocent brown eyes and bone-thin body he'd once held in his arms…  
His heart races and his mind can only think of Akira, everything else around him goes mute. "He's still himself," he says and hope resonates inside his chest Because Akira is still himself, gentle, kind and beautiful Akira is still himself. He will hug Ryo like he used to, no questions asked even if Ryo is sporting a machine gun. Because that's how Akira is, he doesn't ask questions, he just gives and gives. 

And this time around shouldn't be different, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter I know lol Akira will pop up soon just starting with the dramatic buildup slowly :) ONWARD TO CHAPTER 3


	3. I Need You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> OH MY GOD I'M BACK FROM THE DEAD! Sorry for the long wait but finals thoroughly kicked my ass. A month of anxiety and torture I studied like _BEAST!!!_ I'm glad I have this chappy down packed! It was a lot of fun to write, I swear  <3 this should be renamed "Ryo gets fucking tortured!" And more importantly, Akira FINALLY makes an appearance! Enjoy! :D

“Come one! Move, you slow fuck!” Ryo bellowed, punching his horn behind the infuriating slow truck in front of him. Deciding not to waste his time with this pathetic driver, Ryo floors the gas. maneuvering the car right before stomping on the brakes and taking a sharp turn. Bypassing the driver. The tires screeched hellishly against the pavement right before speeding back up. Outrunning the police officers far behind his tail, their sirens blazing in the night. 

Ryo strained his eyes in vain to focus on where he was going, his mind too consumed with Akira.

 _Akira, Akira, Akira_

_‘Akira, please be okay. I need you’_ The litany of desperation echoes in his mind trying to focus on the winding road. 

The fear of the unknown and uncertainty whether Akira was okay or hurting in some way was killing Ryo. In frustration, he grips the steering wheel harder. His nails digging into the sleek, black leather to pull himself together. Ryo dodged every car in his path, their honking drowning out in a matter of seconds as Ryo dashed by without a care. Gripping the steering wheel in a death grip his knuckles turning white from the pressure. Ryo had no other option to release a bit of the stress he was feeling. Ryo sped past another driver, right before he was about to change lanes. Ryo heard the honks from the driver holding the horn and shouted obscenities.

"You crazy motherfucker!" The pathetic human shouted angrily as the horn faded and died.

The unfortunate driver drove into the divider that separated the two lanes. It collided with another. Ryo’s mind fluttered back to Akira, not even looking back to see the damage he caused from his rearview mirror.

 _‘Akira I’m coming’_ He felt his heart hammering in his ribs, feeling it was going to explode inside of him. He swore _“Fuck!”_ , dodging the slow cars on the highway. Ryo knew where Akira was, he didn’t need to look on his dashboard for Akira's locations or use that _girl_ to find him. He could see it in his mind. Like a movie he already saw. He would stand by the pier, with his happy smile and trusting eyes. Waiting for Ryo to whisk him away to some new adventure somewhere far away.

Parts of him wanted to scoff at the inane notion, the feeling of his heart's pull of romanticism, of love and hope. The primal instincts and desperation were burning in his core. Rather than logic and reasoning of his mind. His brain screamed and trashed for reluctance. While consumed by these emotions eating him alive like parasites.

The painful throbbing in his head had subsided. But it still kept its presence known, unable to fully keep his eyes on the road. His eyes burned, Ryo wanted to close his eyes, to fight off nausea. Yet the speed in which he was driving it didn't help. Cars would appear out of nowhere and Ryo had to think fast to avoid them. He couldn't lose sight on Akira! Ryo’s precious Akira was driving him mad. Lifting a hand off the steering wheel, Ryo touched his head. Almost believing he could feel his brain drilling a hole through the back of his skull. The pain resurfaced again like an incoming storm. Ryo groaned, rubbing his eyes it was impossible to see straight again. 

_Akira…._

A flash of amber eyes invades his mind and sweet poisonous voice filtered in his ear.

 _‘Find me’_ It whispered

The words she whispered before his world shattered into pieces. Than rebuild itself again. What did she want? It wasn't like her to play games and she isn't strong enough to send him back. Then it dawned on him. Did she send him back? Strong as she was even she didn't have that kind of power. Whatever this means Gabriel didn't do it out of the kindness of her heart. Unless she wanted something in return. Ryo’s blood boiled beneath his skin making his headache intensify at alarming rates. The road began to flash white in front of him and he began to disappear along with the evaporating light. 

_He was back._

_The last moments of the Earth's final stages of annihilation._

_Dead and empty, the land he sat upon. Satan roared. Crying out to the heavens as God's soldiers in arms descended. His screams ignored and swallowed by the deep void of the dead Earth. Holding the beloved corpse of Akira close to his breast. Vowing to never let go._

_Behind him an angel stood, her head bowed from his gaze. Then she was facing him sitting down before him. Feeling her soft hand brushing his bangs away from his wet face became present. Her eyes bright and shining with warmth and hope._

_The world around him blurred into a soft flurry of light._

The next thing Ryo knew the car in front of him stopped abruptly. Preparing to barrel past the car when spotting his exist -turning the wheel tightly as he could. Swerving to his exit his -car slammed into the other. The windshield shattering into a million pieces as the airbag deployed. Exploding on Ryo’s face before crashing the steering wheel. His head whipped violently backward smashing against his headrest. He felt dread. Felt real fear creep up his spine at the possibility of real damage coming to him. But not for him - for Akira -knowing it meant not seeing him again. Time was both slow and fast. 

Breathing was the only thing he could manage.

He couldn’t move, couldn’t think. All he could do was breathe and sit there, frozen. Gripping the steering wheel and feeling the hot blood running down his face. The taste metallic and copper filled his mouth making him gag and wretch. Attempting to move whatever remaining strength he had left to look out the shattered window. He was surrounded by a gaggle of humans. Their voices were high and startled blended together in a dull roar. 

“Oh my god, is he alright?”

“Quick somebody call the ambulance!!!”

“Serves that maniac right for speeding”

He felt his body slipping and gave himself to the blackness.

 

***

 

Slowly coming around he didn't need to open his eyes to know where he was. His nose smacked with the scent of iodoform disinfectant filling the sterile air. 

A hospital.

The fuzziness faded and Ryo sees green spots dance behind his eyelids. He hears no voices calling for him once he opens his eyes. Ryo is in a tiny white room. The wall beside him had long vertical blinds for privacy. Above his head, the damaged leg was suspended by a skeletal traction connected, by a pulley system on the ceiling.

Trying to move prove to be a huge mistake. He felt an awful pain spreading from his broken leg making the splintered bones rake beneath his skin.

After ceasing his attempt to get up, he slumped back into the bed with an exasperated sigh. His body propped up by lumpy flat pillows which were giving him a pretty good view of his room. The IV dripping connected to his arm was right by his bedside. Annoyed, Ryo drifted his hands to the tube with the desire to rip it off him.

 

“Take it easy, Deadpool, I wouldn't do that if I were you”, a voice, airy and authoritative came from the far side of the room. The blonde didn’t want to admit it. The voice was intimidating, one that would make him have to measure himself before talking. 

Ryo turned his head to the voice which it belongs to. The man was tall, that much Ryo can tell, even when lying in bed while the other was standing up. The doctor was swarthy skinned with shaggy brown hair and sprouting a five o’clock shadow. The aura he emitted was powerful and Ryo was being crushed by the weight of it. Making his empty stomach churn with apprehension. He stands by his bed and taking out a blue ball pen from his white jacket. The doctor begins to write down in the folders he was holding. 

“Ryo Asuka. Age: 17 Height: 6’1 ½ Weight: 160 lb. The injuries you've sustained are a comminuted fracture of the femoral bone of the right leg and three fractured ribs. Checking in the laundry list of disasters in this handy dandy file of sins: you were Go Go Speed Racing down a highway, outrunning law enforcement. All the while carrying what equates to pocket lint here in a way of American driver’s license. So tell me, are you an organ donor? Because I’m fairly certain you’re brain dead.” He says in a dry bored tone measured while still sounding mocking. 

_Who the actual fuck is this guy?_

Ryo flared but bit back his tongue and digging his fingers into the sheets. Resisting the urge to wrap his hands around the doctor’s neck and _squeeze_ until his head popped. Before could answer with a clever response he couldn’t move his right hand. Realizing it was fucking chained to the goddamn gurney!

_‘Damnit, the police got me.’_

Glancing at his handcuff, all could Ryo do was just stare at the doctor wordlessly. Too disoriented to come up with anything, his mouth mercilessly dry but too prideful to ask for a glass of water. He feels he's barely in the room or even in his own body. Probably something to do with the drugs he was given to keep him sedated. All he could do was listen to him and try not to vomit –again– all over the floor.

The doctor, who hasn’t introduced himself yet, and to whom Ryo had given the liberty to name “Dr. Asshole”. Who was now looking at him? Actually, he is studying him. His brilliant green eyes behind his obnoxious thick-rimmed hipster glasses. Trying to wring the truth out of him even when he hasn’t exchanged a word yet. He seems like someone who is able to read him, and for that Ryo already loathes him.

“Are you always this quiet when you almost cause vehicular homicide?” Dr. Asshole speaks again. His voice is more pointed and he makes sure to highlight the last two words of his question. No inflection in his tone or in his overall mannerisms. Obviously, he's not getting brownie points for bedside manners but Ryo has to play his cards right. He must not give himself away!

“I was going somewhere” Ryo croaked out. How can he explain to this schmuck that his best friend is in danger and everyone is stuck in a low budget parody of Groundhog day? Before he could get another word out, Ryo coughed, making his already sore throat hurt more. The doctor noticed his pain, the calculating gaze soften a bit out of compassion and honest care. The doctor let out a dramatic sigh and left the room for a mere moment but came back shortly with a small paper cup filled with a little water. 

"Here,” he sighed handing him the cup. Ryo stared at it with distaste, pride having made a too strong housed in his chest after eons of existence to now beg for a trickle of water like a dog. Insulted, he almost raised his free arm to throw it when the doctor spoke up. “Look, kid, you need the water, of course, we have you on fluids. But you need some for your throat, I’ll come back later with something more soothing you, but for now drink. It'll take away some of the pain”. Ryo looked down into his cup again, there was barely enough for a mouthful. 

_“More,”_ Ryo said tersely, once he finished his cup and coughing he tried to make his voice sound demanding. The doctor took the cup back to the water cooler, refilling it before handing it back to Ryo. Now overflowing and close to the rim Ryo managed not to spill it. His hands shaking as he tried to lift the cup to his mouth. Taking small measured sips, he felt the cool liquid slithering down his throat. Involuntarily, his throat contracted and let out hacking coughs, almost spitting out the water from his mouth. He heaved and grimace but after his next sip, his throat began to feel slightly better. It still hurt to drink, his throat wasn’t as dry as before.

 

“All right kiddo, second verse, same as the previous one. Now start from the beginning why were you speeding? And no shit you were obviously going somewhere. That’s what a car is for and I don’t think that has changed since last time I checked.” His eyes drilling holes into his face. Ryo stubbornly turns away refusing to answer. The rapid change of movement makes everything blurry and his stomach twists again.

“So, you can either talk to me or talk to the police. Your call.” Dr. Asshole throws at him as if it was nothing Ryo can do. The man has measured his approach from start to end. This one is his last resort. His face is unreadable and his tone is absent of any lies. Ryo knows he will talk to the police if he doesn’t start cooperating now. The cool words sink into him like an anchor and his heart plummets at the realization. He isn't fucking around, indeed this man will talk to the police. 

Ryo doesn’t look at him, trying to keep his composure in check. The last thing he needs is to get involved with the police. It won’t be the first time he had to bribe his ass out of jail since it’s easy to buy his way out of a police officer’s arrest. The lesser of two evils, he doesn’t want to deal with another interrogation and Dr. Asshole is already wasting his time. Keeping him away from Akira.

“I don’t have time for this!” Ryo surged up, glaring daggers at him and thinks all kinds of weaponry he wished he had while thinking why can’t he just kill him? “My friend is in danger -I need to find him! He needs me -it was an emergency! I wasn’t thinking straight and yes, I was going on a dangerous speed. I am in no way out of my mind if that’s what you are worried about.” Ryo starts, measuring his voice and leveling, hoping the Dr would take pity on his plight. “I’ll pay for whatever damage I caused and the huge fine I have!” he adds in the end. Trying to bullshit his way out of this, like he had done before. Somehow this feels like a final test -he wouldn't be able to lie to this man. His brows knit in false worry trying to mimic the of expression of regret of his actions. 

“Well, that's just dandy”. The doctor sneers with real disgust marring his features. Ryo thinks this is the most evident expression the doctor pulled in this entire conversation. The doctor had been composed before but now his mask broken. “I never knew that the cure for a comminuted fracture was paying their fine! Guess we've been wasting our time on millennia of medical studies when the answer all along was a Midas touch. You really cracked the code, indeed." And every word feels like a slap, a whip or something more painful to Ryo’s pride. Dr. Asshole’s posture morphs into something powerful. He stands straighter and makes him look bigger in Ryo’s eyes to the point the blond almost shrinks back.

He doesn’t and fight's against his better judgment.

“I’m trying to make it better with what I can, is it that wrong? Shouldn’t it be seen as good?” Ryo answers, elevating his tone to compensate for his lack of a solid argument. He hates himself for reducing to such a low way of manipulation, but desperate time call for desperate measures. 

The doctor visibly changes, his eyes flashed in controlled rage. "You almost _killed_ people! You think waving that big fat check around would alleviate the loss of lives you almost took that night? How would your friend feel when you caused negligent manslaughter?" Contrary to Ryo, he doesn’t elevate his voice to a shriek. The doctor's voice booming and final, making Ryo want to disappear into the mattress. 

Ryo cringed at that shuddering in his flimsy hospital gown. Knowing the predictability of his friend’s course of action. Akira would feel terrible for the meager amount of human lives Ryo would’ve either killed or injured. His bleeding heart no doubt takes the humans side no matter the criteria or situation they were placed in. Ryo would inevitably be placed in the lowest part of the totem pole.

He shakes his head stubbornly as if shaking off old wounds and retains himself.

“Look, let me out of here.” Ryo seethes, changing the approach “I assure you that everyone will be better off for it!" Glaring up at the doctor face an attempt to be more menacing. If playing the victim is not enough then he has to return to intimidation. 

"Listen bowl cut, considering the state you are in, and trying to make me bend backward is just laughable. Definitely the highlight of my day!” Dr. Asshole is actually sporting a smile and his eyes are alive with laughter. “Also, I can't let you waltz out with a mangled leg and fractured ribs. You are in no shape of leaving with all the odds against you.", He counters with a self-satisfying, smug smile adorning his features now. The laughter dead in his eyes now replaced by smugness. Knowing Ryo won’t leave the premises for a very long time.

Ryo's temper rises to an apex. "Just uncuff me, get me my crutches, and we can both go our ways. I'm not shitting you. I've got to save my friend." He insists again, already tired of himself for sounding like a broken record.

"Oh really?" the doctor challenges, pushes his atrocious glasses closer. Using his index finger to accommodate them in place, The light of the room making the glasses flash for a second. "Then why do you have assault rifles and ten pounds of weed and cocaine in your trunk? I can only imagine the kind of friends you have considering you are going to aid them with all that.” And he tilts his head to the side in a fake gesture of thought while already knowing the answer. “I can’t believe your story whether you're going to save your buddy or shoot up the nearest elementary school down the block. You are a walking hazard and its best for everyone to keep you locked in." His words are final, there’s no way to convince him out of his decision. 

Ryo freezes and thinks for a bit, forgetting why he had the pound of weed in his trunk when it's only Friday. Then he remembers that he was doing cartel business from across the Pacific Ocean. "I don't know where that came from..." Ryo trails off and thinks he can’t sound more pathetic than he did. Cursing at himself for not being consistent.

"Umm hm," Came from the doctor, clearly not buying it and not falling for any games. "Before you came into the hospital, we checked your DUI and you came out clean. But that doesn't explain why you have a machine gun unless you’re going monster hunting. Then again, last time I checked Constantine was just a comic.” Even though treats his like a stupid kid, there is something underlying what he said before. This makes Ryo latch on to it. As if he knows the doctor is implying. 

"That's an odd conclusion doctor... but I'm serious, name your price." The doctor gazed down at him, poker-faced “No price needed here. Curious is all. Seeing kids like you making a mess of things… Like eating Tide Pods or carrying automatic weapons. But you don’t need to tell me that, you can tell the police though.” 

Ryo’s shudders and Dr. Asshole laughs. ”Oh, how _rude_ of me, guess I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Yosuke Asad and I’ll be your doctor while you stay here. By the way, we already called Jenny, your secretary, is it? since she is the only emergency contact that the social security number provided. If she has the same level of driving skills as you, she’ll probably be here in no time.”

The man - Dr. Asad, walks up to the door and looks back before giving Ryo Cheshire smirk “Are you hungry? I can grab a nurse to get dinner for you. I hope you’re in the mood for Jello and dry meatloaf!” he offers with a sardonic grin.

_Go fuck yourself!_

“No, I’m not hungry.”

“Alright, suit yourself”, Dr. Asad shrugged and left.

Ryo let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in. Gazing up at the popcorn ceiling he lets his mind drift. No matter the police or Gabriel’s games, all he cared for is Akira is alive! He’ll eventually find a way to break himself out. He’d always have. No matter the odds against him nothing would prevent him to keep him from seeing Akira! 

True to the doctor’s words, Jenny did arrive quickly as one of the nurses brought her into his room.

Jenny stood before him as dutiful as a soldier, waiting for a command. With every ounce of strength of his broken body, Ryo raised himself up and gave her his orders. 

“Get. Me. Out. Of. Here.”

Sneaking out of the hospital turned out to be unsurprisingly easy. There was no epic breakout, or brilliant executed plan to get to point A to point B. All it took was Jenny to wheelchair him to the least populated area of the hospital ward and exit from the back.

The car was parked out waiting for them as Jenny helped him inside. She wrapped him in his white coat over his hospital gown. Then it finally dawned on him. There was a tiny, unimportant detail he hadn’t taken in consideration was the lack of mobility he was suffering from. He could barely move his legs. The drugs he received to pacify the pain was slowly leaving his body. And now starting to feel the impact of the crash from the early hours of the morning. 

Starting the car Jenny gazed at him from her peripheral vision. ”Sir. I think is wise to return to the apartment and rest. You are in no sha-”

“No! We have to find Akira! I’m not going to turn back when I made it this far. Just do as I say and drive to the fucking pier!” He shouted making his broken ribs rattle beneath his skin. However, Jenny did not react to his outburst. Little if any. She simply nodded at his orders with no further protest. Before he laid his head back on the headrest, he thought he saw a flickering in Jenny’s eyes...

The drive was slow and agonizing. Having no drugs or morphine to keep him sedated he felt every bruise, every contusion, every bone of his body creak and shift during the long duration of the drive. Making Ryo grow worse for wear.

He would moan and tremble in the car seat with his breathing becoming more labor and brittle by the second. More than once, Jenny would side eye him asked if he was sure to continue on and Ryo would snap at her to keep driving. This continued on, back and forth like a really bad car ride game.

Through the pain and haze, Ryo would drift. Gazing out the window watching the blue sky bleed to a soft orange hue of the sunset. Trying to find the mob of brown hair and the small faint figure. He isn’t certain what he would do when he sees him. Not sure how he could explain that to Akira. 

“Sir.”

 _“What...is it?!”_ Ryo growled, preparing to lash out at her again if she mentions returning to the apartment.

“We’ve arrived.”

In an instant those words were spoken, Ryo lunches out of the car. Ignoring Jenny’s protest to return to use crutches or have her carry him, he soldiers on. Walking on his shattered leg, ignoring every painful shift of bones bend and snap. That was only connected by the cast was keeping them together. The wooden stairs of the boardwalk was an excruciating journey up ahead. His legs were getting weary. The constant shifting of his ribs pressing against his lungs was making it harder to breathe. The white-hot agony that shot up from his leg felt like he was being stabbed over and over again. 

Finally making it in the ending of the stairway his legs almost give out hearing that voice.

_“I’m the mermaid that got delivered from the faraway sea”_

Ryo’s knees buckle from under him and he chokes out a loud gross sob. Akira is really, truly alive! The voice was more beautiful than any chorus of Seraphim singing the praises of God or any harp he’d ever played.

Finally, up the stairs, Ryo can see him. He's frozen in place he blinks rubbing his eye's not believing what he's seeing at first. Akira is there right in front of him, the orange light of the sun casting him in an almost angelic fashion. The contrast to the last he's seen of Akira in the most immediate part of his memory crushes against this one. And Ryo couldn’t be more elated about that. Because it meant only one thing, Akira was alive now. It gave him hope. He had a new chance to make everything right, to stay with Akira, to _be_ with Akira!

The chocolate brown eyes are as soft as the rest of the boy and just as he remembers him. Just as he should always have been and how he should always stay. He looks fragile as always, thin, pale limbs contrasting drastically to the Akira he had gotten to know in the last moments of his previous reality. He can’t decide which one he liked better since both were Akira but… No, he can tell, this one. This one he likes better because it embodies everything Akira was. 

Everything Akira should remain as and should have remained if had Ryo not changed him.

His stomach drops at that last thought. Promising himself nonstop that he was going to save Akira and not turning him into a Devilman. Finally coming to an awful understanding it was his doing that led to Akira to his doom. Considering the fact he had gotten Akira in all that fucked up shit that ended up killing him. His eyes prickled and he cannot tell if it’s because of these damn emotions or of Akira in front of him. Being alive and beautiful as he remembered. 

He wished he could be a better person, a better entity, but he is not. He knows he caused Akira’s pain and yet he wants to get closer to him again. He's selfish, and he knows it. Rotten to the core. He is Satan after all. He wants to stand next to him and bathe in the brightness of his smile and the happiness in his eyes. 

_He wants._

He recognizes other voices that tear him out of his reverie. Other voices he did not care enough to remember. One of the tag-along humans who was abusing _his_ Akira and also present was also that girl.

The presence of that girl and the love Akira has for her cuts deep into him. Like an infection, it eats him alive. A spark awakens in him, akin close to animalistic possessiveness or demonic even. He wanted to tear that girl limb from limb for having the nerve to stand next to Akira. He has to get there, he has to take Akira for himself, he can’t let that girl get in the way. He can’t. 

_Not again._

_“Akira!”_ Ryo howled into the sunset and in an instant, the chatter ceased into a halt and all eyes of the pier were drawn to him. 

He has seen galaxies form, life being created and fading away. He has seen all the emotions known in humankind's spectrum, all of them. He saw so many things no human would ever witness. But there are forgotten when seeing Akira basking in the soft sunset glow. Like a maiden waiting for her long lost lover to return to her after waiting for an eternity. 

"Who the hell is that? Guy in all white coat, don’t he know it’s summer?" One of the rappers called out but Ryo paid no mind. Regretting not having his machine gun in his pocket to shut them up like before. Nothing mattered when Akira was alive and breathing and mere stairs away. Standing in the small boat surrounded by plywood. The boy went rigid like a statue. His beautiful face morphed so fast Ryo would have missed it if he hadn't been paying close attention to Akira's every move. Yet, he didn't care, he only wanted to get to Akira, to hold him and feel his heart beating again, alive. And how it should have always stayed. He hadn't noticed anything around him and didn't stop himself to meditate what was behind Akira's pale complexion changing to a sick looking yellow, or his eyes becoming flooded. 

"Akira!" he cried out again, tasting the name in his lips and feeling the warmth and familiarity welling in his chest. He felt like crying too, but for reasons that were different from Akira, he couldn't see it. 

“Hey fool, we are in the middle of something here!” 

“Akira who is that guy?”

The damn humans dare to speak again and he wanted nothing more than to smite them out of the face of existence. Especially to end the pathetic girl’s insistent shrieking.

"Akira, come one, let’s go!” Ryo screamed again with more desperation, making his ribs shuttered with each reverberated cry. This seemed to wake the boy up and Akira sprinted towards the stairs. "Ryo!” 

Mindlessly, Ryo's arms were up waiting to hold the sweet small body against his own, promising to never let go. 

The body that was still soft and fragile, not yet touched by the brutality of Amon. 

The purest form of Akira. 

No Sabbath. No Devilman. Just simply the most simplistic, sweet human Akira!

A fist collides on the right side of his face and sees an explosion of stars right before his eyes. The world around him spins and he falls over down the wooden stairs. His limbs twisting and tumbling over one another. Ryo’s bruised and battered body thudded against each step, his head tossed around like single grape in a shaken salad bowl. 

His body comes to a complete halt and the world regains its balance again.

He couldn’t move, couldn’t think. Doesn’t know the slightest idea what just happened.

On top of the stairs where Ryo could see as he laid broken was Akira.

His eyes weren’t sparkling with happiness or any sort of joy. None seen. Only the pure black rage in his eyes of naked fury swirling in them. Jaw clenched and trembling with his fist dripping with blood from his knuckles. 

_His blood._

Ryo gazed at him in stunned as he laid crumbled and broken on the ground.

_“...Aki..ra?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note if you see any changes on the previous chapters it's getting a massive re-editing so don't be alarmed it's not a Mandela effect lol. Oh and sorry Ryo, but you definitely deserved that! Sorry, not sorry! If anyone needs help editing stories or with sentence structures. Check out this website http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ Not only it will help you improve your writing skills it's _free!_ Don't waste your money on Grammarly lol


	4. Author's note: Update

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm BAAAAAACKKKK

Hey guys, I've put this story on hold since May and left on a cliffhanger and I'm so sorry. From starting the new semester in college, job, exams, and final's have taken a toll on my mental health but IM NOT GIVING UP ON THIS STORY!!! I have so many ideas and drafts for chapter 4 and I need help putting it together! If anyone who is willing to help me or be my beta/co-author, I am willing to share my ideas with you. If you wish to contact me my Tumblr is https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ariessy

I hope anyone is interested because the plot is just getting started!!! >:3

**Author's Note:**

> YEEEAAAHH! So much for the family reunion amirite? lol yeah, there's going to be a lot of family drama between Gabby and Luci omg it's going to get WORSE!


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